First of all, I would like to say that I am
sorry for taking so long, because we have just completed talks with the French
delegation and President [Emmanuel] MacronMacron EmmanuelPresident of France. As an explanation for being late, I can say that my colleagues and I, as we say jokingly, do not have anything
concrete to do, which is why we love to talk and dream, and that takes a long
time. Unlike us, you have concrete responsibilities for concrete work that is
worth millions, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

I know that many things have changed since our
meeting last year, and they have changed for the better. Our cooperation is
improving and moving forward, which is good news.

I know that you continue working actively with
our sovereign fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund. I would like to say in this connection that the returns on investment you make together with the RDIF
are higher than the world’s average.

The projects you are implementing are highly
reliable. We are trying to provide government assistance to these projects,
doing everything in our power to guarantee their reliability and effectiveness.

I hope we will continue to work in the same
manner to further expand our interaction.

I give the floor to [RDIF CEO Kirill] Dmitriev
now. After he concludes his opening remarks, we will exchange views on the current state of affairs and our plans for the future.

Mr President, I would like to thank you on behalf of all investors present here for these regular meetings and for your support for the Russian Direct Investment Fund. These meetings are very productive, because
investors can use them to learn about Russia’s economic development priorities
and to choose the most promising investment areas. Also, investors can exchange
views and experience of their countries’ breakthrough development. This is
especially important now, when Russia is focused on breakthrough development in infrastructure and technology.

The RDIF and its partners have invested 1.2 trillion
rubles in over 50 projects in Russia, with 90 percent of the amount provided by our partners. The fund and its partners, who are present here, plan to invest
another 1.5 trillion rubles within two years.

We have attracted over $40 billion to joint funds,
with $4 billion investment via the automatic co-investment mechanism. As Mr
President has said, returns on our investment are higher than those of other
funds and indices. In particular, the partners who are attending this meeting
provide 90 percent of all direct investment in Russia. The revenues of our
portfolio companies are worth more than 5 percent of Russia’s GDP.

Today we have announced 12 investment deals for various sectors. These include the company Deliver, which offers efficient
cargo transportation services for small and medium-sized companies, and a project to create robotic surgical systems, which will reduce the cost of surgery many times. We will work with TH Milk to invest $600 million in Russia’s dairy sector. There are also six investment deals, which have been
concluded with our French partners who met with President Putin today. These
plans also include oncology treatment centres. Two of them have been built in the Moscow Region, and there will be 50 of them altogether across Russia. Today
we started working with the Central BankBackground informationBank of Russia (Central Bank) to form a fund for holding the non-core
assets of lending institutions, in which you can also invest.

We worked with you to invest in the development of infrastructure, such as the Central Ring Road, the Odintsovo Bypass, and a project to build a Northern bypass to Kutuzovsky Avenue. We have estimated
Russia’s current infrastructure investment requirements at 2 trillion rubles a year.
Today we will discuss increasing Russia’s sovereign debt to invest more in infrastructure. We are working closely with the Finance Ministry in this
respect.

In conclusion, I would like to say that investment in technology is extremely important. We have created a network of seven partners,
which allows us to choose the best technology projects in Russia and implement
them in all countries. Last year, 58 percent of total investment in technology
projects in Russia went through RDIF and our partners. We believe that a technology and infrastructure breakthrough is possible if we work together with
the investors who are attending this meeting. We propose discussing the possibility
of boosting investment by increasing debt so as to invest more in infrastructure and technology.